 'Be Cool'
(John Travolta, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, et al / PG-13 / 85 mins / MGM)
Overview: Erstwhile movie mogul Chili Palmer (John Travolta) sees a friend killed while he's at lunch, and when he visits the wife (Uma Thurman) of the deceased, he pitches himself as her new business partner, hoping to enter the music industry. Chili takes on a would-be pop star as a client but soon finds himself dealing with Russian mobsters, an incompetent manager, and other complications.
Verdict: To be quite frank here, 'Be Cool' (a movie I desperately wanted to be extraordinarily wonderful) really shouldn't work! But it's smarter than it looks, handles itself assuredly, and does manage to be funny. That all said, 'Be Cool' is sadly anything but. A follow-up to the charming comedy 'Get Shorty', it’s one of the weakest sequels in recent memory. For the most part, the film is a squalid piece of nonsense that trivializes murder and violence. The color is good and Travolta is a master of the dance floor, but this is nothing more than glitzy trash. Be cool, be lukewarm - perhaps, just be somewhere else!
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